Hot new colors for spring

At least according to Pantone! These are the top 10 colors for women’s fashion this spring, as chosen by NY designers. I learned about these at a mini-session with Vogue Knitting editor Trisha Malcolm at TNNA. She gave us these color cards. (You may get a truer reading if you go to the Pantone website.)

The color of the year is honeysuckle, or Pantone 18-2120. Pretty.

What else did we learn? White is the biggest trend for spring. Plan on seeing lots of it, especially with navy, because navy is the new brown. Remember when brown was the new black? We’re so over that. You’ll also see navy with citrus (green or yellow) and honeysuckle.

Other fashion trends for spring: sheer layers, especially lightweight cowls, scarves, and wraps. Less shape: we’ll be seeing comfortable billowy shapes replacing the refined look of fall 2010. Trisha says that the long sleeveless vest will be the “it” garment, and knitters will make it more interesting with embellishments like lace or cables. Sounds good to me.

Here’s the back of the card with the rest of spring’s trends.

And when you’re done with spring? The color for fall is wine. Trisha says that the good news is that wine is a color that looks good on almost all skin tones.

Do you follow fashion colors? I still mostly knit with blue and purple, because I like them. Wine looks good, too. In fact, this reminds me that I should finish my Heather Hoodie. I set it aside last spring when I realized that it wouldn’t be done before the weather got too warm. I’m cold now, so that’s a great incentive to pick it up again, and I can wear it next fall, too, when it’s the very fashion-forward wine color! (Really, it’s called Bing Cherry, but that’s our little secret.)

Instead of a vest, I’m making this with long sleeves. I’m so glad I wrote good notes before setting this project aside! I picked them up at the shoulder, worked a modified drop shoulder sleeve cap, and am knitting them flat down to the wrist. Yes, I could have done it in the round, but I like my 26 inch circular and didn’t want to have to change to dpns part way down. And I like mattress stitch seaming on stockinette.

One more tidbit from TNNA: The Noro rep told me that Silk Garden Lite is coming back this spring. I’m pretty pleased, because that means that my Infinity scarf is no longer designed with a discontinued yarn. I’m feeling so au courant…

11 responses to “Hot new colors for spring”

I have been following Pantone in the last two years just for trivia…nothing else. It’s always fun to see what people are in. In truth, if you want to know what is in this year, you have to follow Milan Fashion Runway two years before.

It’s nice to see a familiar knit…I love that hoodie. Long sleeve is good but I find vest is much more versatile which I tend to wear more of…love dressing in layers. Here in high desert, we have too 😀

I picture beeswax as more neutral than this, based on beeswax cake I had for waxing sewing thread when I was a teen. Oddly enough, the back of the card says New Neutrals: Classic fall beiges become more peachy and fun for spring. So maybe that’s where that’s coming from.

One of the people in the mini-session took issue with calling this shade honeysuckle, because she knows what real honeysuckle looks like. But a quick look at google images shows honeysuckle in all kinds of colors, from white to yellow to orange to deep pink. I guess it’s possible!

I don’t really follow fashion colors (though these are all nice!), because I’m a true believer in wearing something that looks good on YOU and not on some model. That being said, the big number of colors they give will definitely be able to look good on many different skin colors, which is nice. I will see if I can find some honeysuckle shirts this Spring. 😉